92 AUDUBON 



those dear to me, I feel fully convinced, and look forward 

 with an anxiety such as I never felt before, when I 

 calculate that not less than four months, the third of a 

 year, must elapse before my wife and children can receive 

 any tidings of my arrival on the distant shores to which I 

 am bound. When I think that many more months must 

 run from the Life's sand-glass allotted to my existence 

 before I can think of returning, and that my re-union with 

 my friends and country is yet an unfolded and unknown 

 event, I am filled with sudden apprehensions which I can- 

 not describe nor dispel. 



Our fourth of July was passed near the Grand Banks, 

 and how differently from any that I can recollect. The 

 weather was thick, foggy, and as dull as myself; not a 

 sound of rejoicing reached my ears, not once did I hear 

 " Hail Columbia ! Happy land." My companion pas- 

 sengers lay about the deck and on the cotton-bales, bask- 

 ing like Crocodiles, while the sun occasionally peeped 

 out of the smoky haze that surrounded us ; yet the breeze 

 was strong, the waves moved majestically, and thousands 

 of large Petrels displayed their elegant, aerial movements. 

 How much I envied their power of flight to enable me to 

 be here, there, and all over the globe comparatively speak- 

 ing, in a few moments, throwing themselves edgeways 

 against the breeze, as if a well sharpened arrow shot with 

 the strength and grace of one sprung from the bow of an 

 Apollo. I had remarked a regular increase in the number 

 of these Petrels ever since the capes of Florida were 

 passed; but here they were so numerous, and for part of 

 a day flew in such succession towards the west and 

 southwest, that I concluded they were migrating to some 

 well known shore to deposit their eggs, or perhaps leading 

 their young. These very seldom alighted ; they were full 

 the size of a common gull, and as they flew they showed 

 in quick alternations the whole upper and under part of 

 their bodies, sometimes skimming low, sometimes taking 



